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"Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen." - The Book of Common Prayer (1979), The Episcopal Church.

America's historical commitment to freedom... has taken an unexpected turn in modern America. In short, the closing decades of the twentieth century to the present have witnessed an intense effort, spearheaded by many conservative and fundamentalist Christians, to discard our nation's heritage of church state separation in favor of government favoritism of certain expressions of faith, and hence a curtailing of religious freedom for all.

''The late Gore Vidal used to argue that the American idea rests on the proposition that the end doesn't justify the means, and I think he was right." - Stephen L. Carter, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale

Carter:

Democracy cannot flourish when electoral politics is exalted above all things. The entire point of the concern for civil society is that a successful nation needs its people to be focused on matters more important than transitory partisan advantage. A nation where friends can no longer hold political discussions, for no other reason than that they disagree, is a nation not only in decline but, in the Weberian sense of nationhood-as-common-interest, on the verge of collapse.

And our decline matters. I am naive enough, in the innocence of late middle age, to believe that America should still be a beacon to the world, a nation worth imitating. Plenty of countries around the globe have learned to imitate our self-seeking, our obsessions with wealth and celebrity, and our growing incivility. Before selecting our public behaviors, we should perhaps think a bit harder about what it is that we want to export.

After a tumultuous decade that featured death threats and bullet-proof vests as well as a wedding to his partner of 25 years, Bishop Gene Robinson will be stepping down from his seat on December 31 of this year. But his work continues.

A new progressive Christian PAC was recently announced. From the announcement:

Christians, for a change!

Christians for a CHANGE!

It doesn't matter how you read that, we love it and applaud, with admiration, this newly established PAC that was launched on July 4, 2012.

Christians Tired of Being Misrepresented has been calling out high profile Religious Right Wing Christians since 2010. At almost 19,000 members at the time of this writing, we continue to grow as more and more people find the courage and outlets to proclaim that the Conservative Right Wing Christians do not speak for them.

Yale Divinity School's Facebook page has posted a link on American Magazine's website, which is not working as the time of this RRW post. The YDS post reads in part:

Book by Margaret Farley, RSM, Condemned by Vatican. Prof. Emerita Farley says her book "Just Love" was not intended to express “current official Catholic teaching” but rather to help people “think through their questions about human sexuality,” in response to a Vatican charge that her book “affirms positions that are in direct contradiction with Catholic teaching in the field of sexual morality.” The Vatican, through its Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, sent an official “Notification” released in Rome today.

The Religious Coalition was founded in 1973 to organize religious groups to defend the gains in Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling that protected abortion as part of a woman's right to privacy. But the group has recently broadened and deepened its agenda under the rubric of reproductive justice, since access to health care and education, economic security and a safe environment profoundly affect meaningful reproductive choices. The Religious Coalition says it sees this as a necessary response to the wave of state-level anti-abortion legislation in recent years and as a way of building powerful alliances across a range of concerns.

Following claims by the Mail on Sunday that the Tory Chief Whip, Patrick McLoughlin told MPs that proposals for equal marriage will be “kicked into the long grass”, the Prime Minister has used a pre-local election interview to reaffirm his commitment to the cause.

The Mail on Sunday claimed that Mr McLoughlin privately assured anxious Tory backbenchers that the current proposals for equal civil marriage in England and Wales will “not come to a vote,” and that they will be “kicked into the long grass.”

Today, David Cameron told the Evening Standard that he is “clear about my views” on the issue. He said:“I ask myself the question, why is it that we deny gay couples the ability to get married, and I don’t think that’s right.

Frederick Clarkson's "A Tale of Three Speeches About Separation of Church and State" -

Both candidates have staged high-profile speeches to define themselves in relation to John F. Kennedy's famous 1960 campaign speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association - a speech that has served as the model for how politicians balance religion and public life for a generation. But when they stepped up to the podium to define themselves in the bright light of history, each pandered to the religious right.